Father Normand Pepin, S.J., entered the seminary at age 17 and was ordained a priest in the Society of Jesus. In 1983 he began teaching French, Religion, Mathematics and Music in Fairbanks after a career in education that had taken him from Maine to Florida, and then to St. Maryís, Alaska. Fr. Pepin often performs the traditional Latin Mass as well as the Spanish Masses at the Cathedral in Fairbanks. Fr. Pepin has been composing music since 1964; however, most of his works have been composed since 1986. Many of his pieces have been composed for the Fairbanks Chorale Society and Childrenís Choir and CHORUS! The Choral Society together with members of the Fairbanks Symphony, gave the first performance of Obedient Unto Death to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the Jesuits in Alaska on Palm Sunday, 1987. This work was a 1988 nominee for the Pulitzer Prize in Music. The score to Obedient Unto Death and a photograph of the performers was chosen to be included in the Fairbanks Time Capsule that is to be opened in the Year 2059 for the 100th Anniversary of Alaskan statehood. Several of Father Pepinís compositions for the Fairbanks Choral Society have been sponsored, in part, by the Alaska State Council on the Arts and the National Endowment for the Arts. These include A Mass for Winter Solstice, A French Christmas, A Medieval Mary Garden, and Obedient Unto Death. In March of 2002, he returned to Pittsburgh as the Pittsburgh Concert Chorale performed the world premiere of Hadassah, a story of Esther, composed by Pepin and Sewickley native, Doris Esteban.
For over 50 years Father Pepin has served God. His travels have taken him from his native Massachusetts to the tropics of Brazil and the sub-Arctic regions of northern Alaska. He has been to all fifty states and is equally adept on skis as he is on the keyboard. The Pittsburgh Concert Chorale is honored to have Father Pepin in attendance for these two performances in Pittsburgh.